Here’s a fun clip of Inoki giving the ‘toukon‘ slap to a kid at a school he’s visiting. Inoki asked the boys to take their shot and the second kid shows some good form. Inoki delivers the slap much for the same reason that he did to Machida: as a show of [...]

A lot of people have asked me about the video below, where Antonio Inoki slaps a young Lyoto Machida after ‘The Dragon’ wins a match. Here’s the video and we’ll explain it below:

Some people have said Inoki was pissed at Machida or disappointed in his performance. Actually, the title of the YouTube clip [...]

Mixed martial arts is becoming a major betting sport, which is a very tidy convergence of my past and present vocations as a professional sports handicapper and fight sport journalism god. Not to toot my own horn, but I was one of the first handicappers to seriously work on MMA back when most people—bookmakers [...]

DREAM has added several non-tournament fights to their DREAM 7 MMA event scheduled to take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo on March 8th. In addition to the featherweight GP first round and the previously announced Shinya Aoki/David Gardner fight there will be a lightweight battle between Tatsuya Kawajiri and Ross Ebanez [...]

Good news out of the Keystone State where Pennsylvania has become the latest to join the rest of us in the 21st century and regulate MMA:
Pennsylvania has joined the growing number of states to allow Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, events, now that the State Athletic Commission has approved final regulations for the sport, Secretary [...]

FEG has posted a big Helio Gracie tribute on the DREAM Official website. Even if you can’t read Japanese you can see the respect for Helio through their choice of pictures:
DREAM tribute to Helio Gracie @ DREAM Official website (in Japanese)

Here’s some footage of Helio Gracie’s most famous fight–basically the Royce v. Sakuraba #1 of its day–as he takes on Japanese judo legend Masahiko Kimura. Rorion Gracie narrates:

Gracie family patriarch and BJJ/MMA pioneer Helio Gracie died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday night at the age of 95. Here’s a link to the SAVSCI’s tribute to a man who trod the path on which today’s MMA superstars now walk, as well as some amazing footage of Gracie’s 1951 battle with Japanese [...]

So let’s say you’re an aspiring MMA fighter looking to test your skills–where do you go? The local gym? The next “Ultimate Fighter” tryout? Lorenzo Fertitta’s house? Apparently, you head down to your local Wal Mart store. And how do you let the multitudes at America’s favorite discount store know [...]

Via MMA Junkie, a profile of the ‘Tuff-N-Uff Fighting Championships’, a Las Vegas based promotion that highlights amateur MMA competitors:

It was typical of everything you would expect from an MMA event in the fight capital of the world — and yet nothing like you’ve ever seen before.
The star-studded attendees were among the 1,500 people packed [...]